


Unwillingly

by JudeAlexei



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Childhood Trauma, Coming of Age, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Louis and Liam used to do musicals, Love, M/M, Multi, Musician Louis, Romance, Slow Build, Teacher Harry, Teacher Niall, Writer Harry, characters have been and go through homophobia, childhood crush, hapiness is the goal, kinda destined to be, lyricist Harry, past trauma, stuck, uni au (kinda)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-06-14 03:06:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15379323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudeAlexei/pseuds/JudeAlexei
Summary: Louis is stuck, in his career and in his mind. Liam, his agent and best friend pushes him to go to an Art School, hoping it'll bring the old Louis back. Harry and Niall are honorary teachers, Perrie and Zayn are brother and sisters (and the most precious people there is), and Louis is very emo and has lots of stuff he loves to run away from (like feelings). I'm terrible at summaries but this is a kinda cliche, cheesy story I tried to make special!





	1. I may be at the top, but I’m on here alone

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write this a long time ago and I have about 7 chapters already written down and lots of pieces that are far from being connected yet. I originally intended not to publish this before it's finished but I decided that I had waited long enough and, yay, here we are!  
> Also, I made Louis and Liam American, please don't hate me for that aha. And I have no real idea of what an Art School is supposed to be like but it's probably not like the one in this story, so sorry for that too.  
> Hope you'll enjoy !

 

“Louis, Louis! Why the sudden urge to go to college? You’ve never been to school before right ?”

“Yes, I’ve almost always been homeschooled. I feel like it’s the thing I miss the most in my life right now, I just want to experiment this, it’s a bit selfish of me and I apologize to my future classmates, because my presence may be disturbing but I really want to use my break the best way I can.”

“Do you already know which establishment you’re going to attend ?”

“This information will stay private until the school year officially starts. And that declaration will close the press meeting, thanks for coming, bye everyone.”

The nineteen-year-old boy stood up, smiled quickly to the mass of journalists packed in front of him and started walking to his car, followed by his bodyguard. There weren’t many fans outside since it was a pretty spontaneous meeting so he took some time to take a few selfies, sign some pictures, a few snapbacks, and a t-shirt. Then he went into his car where his agent and best friend, Liam Payne was waiting for him, his perpetually gentle eyes lighting up at his apparition.

“You were perfect Louis, totally looked like it actually was your decision.”He spoke in his usual steady and warm voice, his strong hand on Louis’ softer and smaller arm. Louis mindlessly asked the driver to start the black Range Rover Sport and to head back to his flat, one of his recent most favorite song beginning to play.

_Twenty One Pilots - Car Radio_

“Do I seriously need to do that Liam? Really? I mean, it’s pretty useless, we both know I could already have graduated from uni! So why should I bother attending classes? Are you trying to punish me or something ?” Louis retorted, looking frustrated and lost, leaning the back of his neck against the soft leather of his seat, eyes fixed on the glass roof. The sky was clear of any cloud, boring. Even after all those years, Louis was still struggling with LA’s weather.

“Louis, it’s not a punishment and you know that very well.” He looked pained for a moment, staring right into Louis’ icy blue eyes, before cupping his bony cheeks in his large firm hands. “You need to experiment something else for a moment, you’ve been an actor and a singer since you were 14, the fame has never really left you. And you did well, compared to all the other baby stars. But lately, you seem… You’re not the same Louis, you look almost… You look dead. You’ve lost weight, and even if the fans love your cheekbones, it’s worrying, Lou.” He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second, his forehead wrinkled by the frow of his thick eyebrows. Something he seemed to do a lot lately, realized Louis. ”Listen, it’s not forever, but you need a pause, it’s killing you, Lou. I don’t know anyone our age who lives a life like yours. Who’s been through what you’ve been through. I don’t want you to hurt yourself, you deserve to be happy. Fuck Lou, you deserve it more than anybody I know!” Liam’s eyes were wide open, and his breath was short, he looked so distressed and irritated, so far from the calm and collected Liam he knew. “You didn’t deserve what happened Louis, I’m so s…”

“Shut up Li, stop apologizing, none of this is your fault and you know that, so please stop blaming yourself for something you’ve got nothing to do with. I’m fine.” Louis looked close to tears, and he was very much aware that his current condition made his statement pretty much useless. “Ok, maybe not perfectly fine, but I’ll be fine, I know it. I just need time.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m giving you Louis. Time to re-find yourself. Besides, this is not just any uni, it’s one of the best art school, just see that as a way to improve yourself artistically!”

“Liam…”

“Please, if you don’t do this for you, do it for me, there’s nothing I want more than seeing you happy. Please, at least one semester ?” The look of thorough despair and worry in his eyes was making it impossible for Louis to reject him. He closed his eyes for a moment, pushing his head back against the seat, his long and thick eyelashes resting on his cheeks, focusing on the music.

_[...] I ponder of something great_

_My lungs will fill and then deflate_

_They fill with fire_

_Exhale desire I know it's dire_

_My time today [...]_

He opened his eyes, looking straight at Liam, his signature smirk plastered on his face.

“Ok, but then I don’t ever want to hear any nonsense about you being responsible again.” He fleered.

This was the liveliest Liam had seen him in the last six months, and it made him feel hopeful. It might work, Liam thought determinedly, it had to work, Louis will eventually go back to being himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)


	2. ... Happy ?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than the last one so yayy, enjoy!

One day before the official beginning of the semester everything was ready.  
Louis had slept over at Liam’s to avoid the mass of paps in front of his apartment, he knew pretty much everything you could learn in books and movies about college. The headmaster of Indoles Art School and the teachers were aware of the situation and perfectly willing to make Louis’ first year of adult schooling as normal as possible considering the situation.

As he was walking he watched the people around him. His blue eyes were fixed on them, trying to guess the dynamic and nature of their relationship. This girl's eyes, so big, so innocent. This guy’s hair, silky, black, short. His smile, taunting, but also, if you really looked, shaky on the corners. They walked slowly, as if to stretch this moment into eternity. Eyes in eyes, glittering. Talking and bumping into each other. They didn’t notice being watched, too caught up in their own world.  
He’d always done that, watching people, trying to get under their skin, to guess who they really were. Or maybe not really who they were but what their reality was like. He found the world so much more beautiful and authentic in those moments, the realness of it almost tangible.

Liam went with him to take care of some administrative procedures concerning his admission but they didn’t talk much before it was time for them to part.  
It was only in the crowded parking lot that Louis realized that this would be the longest time they would spend without seeing each other since they were 14. They stood, staring awkwardly at each other in a moment that seemed to stretch indefinitely before Liam opened his arms, his puppy eyes shining with tears barely held back. Louis went for the hug, hiding his face in Liam’s neck, feeling his own eyes watering.

“Louis, I’m sorry I forced this on you, I just… I just genuinely want you to be happy.” Liam croaked in Louis’ ear.

Louis felt so bad, once again another proof that he didn’t deserve Liam as a best friend. He felt terrible for not being able to be happy, at least for Liam. He needed to try and succeed. And if the magic remedy was going to uni with a lot of unknown people and take a break from his life for a while, then so be it. For Liam.

“No, you were right!" He answered, his strained voice muffled by Liam's flannel. "I need to experiment something else, I’m sure I’ll do great here Liam, I’ll skype you as soon as I can to tell you how things are going. I… I love you, thank you for being here, thank you for everything.”

“Don’t thank me, I just want you to go back to the one you were before, you deserve it Louis, so much.”

They whispered some final words to each other before Louis broke the hug, mouthing a last “bye” to Liam.

... 

Walking back to what was, from this day, to become his new residence Louis wondered if he would ever be able to fit in, distrusting his idea of a “normal young adult’s life and behavior”.

He was thankful for Liam’s sense of detail, his best friend had even thought to ask the chairman for a double NON-SHARED - thank god- en suite room at the end of a hallway. He also mentally thanked his best friend for reminding him to download the plan of the campus on his phone, otherwise he would never have been able to find his way to his room.  
It wasn’t as small as he expected it to be, even when most of the place was taken by a comfortable king size bed, a large antique looking closet, and two drawers probably coming from the same set. Facing the front door was a huge window with a bench seat, one of the best features of this room. Louis had always loved gazing at the sky. His bedroom at home had a similar space and his heart swelled a little at the familiarity of it.  
The bathroom was cool too, surprisingly modern, and the whole room had a lot of storing place. Cupboard and shelves were quickly filled with his favorite books and cds. He put a reminder on his phone calendar to ask Liam to bring his TV with him next time he will come to visit as they had decided not to bring it this time, not sure about the exact size of the room.

At the time all his possessions were where they needed to be and his suitcases packed away, his room finally looking a little bit more personal, it was too late for him to go out to eat a proper meal. Or rather he was much to lazy to bother ordering anything. He took some dried fruit out of his cupboard and ate them, his back against the wall, while checking his twitter feed on his mac, something he hadn’t been able to do since the morning.

His fans were crazy, as always. There were pictures of him and Liam on the campus, hugging, and #Lilo was all over twitter, which was quite funny since Liam and him were as close to be in love as Max Hurd and his own ex beard/current kind of friend (in the “I see her twice a year and I don’t particularly hate her” way) Eleanor Calder to be just friends. He was shipping them so hard, as guilty as he felt about it sometimes, it was his guilty pleasure. Louis was thanking the gods several times a day that Liam still hadn’t found out about his little hobby. (He was also blaming his fans for stuffing his head with all those ship ideas! Gods, where was the Louis who would have spoken about boats at the mention of ships ? Where was his innocence ? Everything went to hell that tragic day he googled OTP…)

He was happy he didn’t cry in the parking lot, there was nothing worse than seeing your ugly crying face all over the internet. Seriously, do people even realize that when you’re acting it’s okay to cry because you’ll look good no matter what but in reality you can still be ugly as hell and totally unwilling to show that to the world ? What was so interesting about his snotty crying face ?

He took a deep breath, his anger was not coming from the fans, he was not upset at his lack of private life, he knew that he had been feeling wrong for quite some time. So long he could not actually remember when it had all started, even though he had his ideas on the reasons. Nothing could be done about it now anyway. And no tears, no anger, no stupid Uni year could do anything against it.

He took out his journal, just a simple notebook where he wrote his thoughts, his lyrics, or just anything that crossed his mind really. (No matter how many times Liam teased him about it Louis would not call it a diary.)

“Aimless. Purposeless. And everyday is the same, and everyday is pain.”

He shook his head, trying to dissipate the gloominess that had taken hold on him. Louis didn't quite understand how his mood could change so quickly, but after lying in bed looking through more than at the pages of his notebook he decided that he was simply sleepy and began his nightly routine, preparing for his first night in the School's dormitory. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)! Next chapter things are starting to move eheh


	3. ... How do You do ?

When he woke up to his alarm (17- Sky Ferreira) he allowed himself some time to just lay in bed and relax.

[...] She hides the pain behind the fun,  
She said she doesn't need anyone at all,  
They say she's living way too fast,  
I wonder how long she can last before she falls  
To the ground.

Something in the way she pushes everyone away,  
There's no way they'd ever know [...]

That’s when he became aware that, for the first time in what seemed like years, he was feeling... Excitement.  
It made him think about this movie he always loved as a child, this film he begged Lou to buy when he had just started living with her because he missed it too much and when he was allowed to, watching it always used to raise his spirits back home. Peter Pan. These feelings of adventure, freedom and the exciting fear of the unknown he was almost shivering with now, were all coming from so far away in time that he had actually forgotten he ever felt them.

He got ready for the day, choosing his outfit in the clothes bought by Liam in extremis last week:  
The black Lanvin skinny trousers which, Dixit Liam “will make your ass look sick“, his Gucci rainbow cities t-shirt and his jimmy choo Oakland sneakers.

Simple but effective, he was feeling comfortable and confident in those clothes. Even though they were quite unsophisticated compared to the edgier look Lou and his publicist usually liked on him.

He packed his school stuff and his MacBook in his black Alexander Mcqueen drawstrings backpack and went to the door, ready to face the adversity… Well, his natural tendency to dramatize his life set aside, he was ready to face his first day of school.

After taking the deepest breath of his existence, (dramatization was definitely hard to get rid of), he walked out of his room, pocketing his phone and forbidding himself to stare at it during the whole walk. He knew it was a stupid fixation but he had to, for the sake of his pride, feel like he was facing this day without using his phone as a protective screen.

As he walked, he couldn’t help himself from looking everywhere. His gaze swept through the residents, males mostly, speaking in little groups in the hallways while others were walking quickly in the stairs, looking busy. Everyone seemed perfectly used to the place and to the student life, and while he noticed some of them staring at him when he walked past them, no one tried to stop him or ask for a picture.  
That was officially the best thing that had happened to him since entering the school grounds.  
He had kinda been nervous about the student's reaction, about the amount of pictures, videos, false information that could be leaked about him, some of those things that people considered normal to do to famous people. He realized now that he might have been too negative about the whole thing, students have their own life to deal with, especially at an Art school.

 

He shook off his thoughts, and lowered his eyes, trying to keep a low profile and to look unimpressed. He found it difficult to keep an even face when, after walking out of the dorms and following his mental picture of the school grounds’, he came to face the astonishing school building. The ancient-looking building reminded him of some huge mansion, all white and light grey stones, moulures, marble stairs, and arched windows. Every single detail was crying luxury.

He was quite wealthy himself but his tastes in decoration were way simpler, Liam generally described his flat as stark and plain, telling him that he should become a monk, that the occupation would suit him much more than his current one. He personally couldn’t see the problem with being attracted to simplicity and purity, he wasn’t necessary austere for all that. Even Lou criticized him for it, which was pretty ironic since she was the one who, until he turned 18, only allowed him to use some part of his money, saving most of it in the bank.

As he entered the place he allowed himself to check his phone, just to make sure he was still heading the right way to find the Douglass Lecture Hall, where all the first years were to attend the welcoming ceremony.

He was among the firsts to arrive which allowed him to pick a good seat, almost in the middle of the seating space, not far from a couple of girls. Once settled he sent a short text to Liam asking for praises for getting there with plenty of time to spare.

As he turned his head around to take a look at the whole auditorium and the people in it, he noticed that the two girls were staring at him, they seemed to have stopped walking after recognizing him and were looking surprised but not hysteric or about to jump on him.

He tentatively smiled at them, like he assumed normal people would and that obviously was the right thing to do because they resumed their walking toward him with genuine smiles on their faces. They still looked a bit impressed but in a more relaxed kind of way, and, as soon as they got close enough, they introduced themselves in cheerful manners.

"Hi, I'm Perrie, I'm in first year majoring in music, nice to meet you!”  
She was a blue-eyed pastel pink haired girl, with plump black lips, ears and nose pierced. Louis absolutely loved her outfit, very British and very vintage, and fell even more for her Vivienne Westwood’s accessories.

“And I'm Sophie, sophomore too, majoring in fashion” She paused two seconds before adding, not without using the right amount of sass, “And may we ask what a VIP like you is doing here ?"  
She was the perfect representation of what was trendy today. Her makeup, nails, hair all perfectly done, she was sexy and yet sophisticated, and he guessed she designed and made her clothes herself since he couldn’t recognize any of them even though they looked first-rate (and he was usually able to after living half of his life with a stylist).  
He realized, at the expectant look on their eyes that it was his turn to talk.

"Er- I'm Louis, as you might already know.” They laughed shortly at that. “I'm majoring in literature but I also took some courses in music so we'll probably have some classes together Perrie.” He took a pause to recollect what Liam and he decided to tell to the media and public about his sudden "decision" to go to uni. "I never really went to school before, I want to have the chance to experience that, and it's also this moment in my career when I want to take the time to think about what I really want to do." He added with his typical professional smile.

The girls nodded in unison, which made him smile bigger, more sincerely, and Perrie asked him if it was ok if they sat beside him, to what he immediately consented to.  
They seemed to know a lot more about the school than he did. Admittedly, his knowledge about this establishment being close to nothing he wasn’t exactly hard to beat, but still, he attentively listened to their comments about the quality of this school, the number of signed artists who graduated from here, and how talented the teachers were.

At the time the ceremony started the whole amphitheater was filled with students, most of them in their early twenties, and what he assumed to be the teachers stood on the scene. Marsha Vlasic, the headmistress, former President of one of the best record label in the world took the microphone and started presenting the school and welcoming the students.

At the end of her speech she looked at the teachers lined behind her and announced with a warm voice how proud she was to introduce the two new helpers for this year music classes, Niall Horan, virtuoso guitarist and pianist and Harry Styles, genius writer and lyricist, both especially coming from London.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okayyyy, so I'm kind of still struggling with Louis' fame, like how much he should realistically be recognized and stopped by people. I kind of decided to make him famous enough that his face could be recognized by non-fans but also not so much that he would have a huge and very dedicated fandom (contrary to the real Louis). My inspiration for that was Emma Watson in Yale, she went there and people knew her but also it's Yale so she wasn't the craziest thing around. I guess it would make sense? I hope ? Plus this is an Art school so I think the students might not want to act too startruck around celebrities in case they like, become one ? Let's say this'll work for the time being ahah.  
> As always, thanks for reading!


	4. Celestial, Mundane ?

The amphitheater, more or less silent during the Headmistress’ speech was now buzzing from every side, and it wasn’t hard to discern the obvious excitation behind the students’ hectic whispers. Not that Louis was able to focus on them, stunned and immobile on his seat, his eyes fixed on the man introduced before by the headmaster as “Harry Styles, genius lyricist”.

Oh god. It was so not happening. Harry Styles. No no no. How come he hadn't heard a thing about him coming to teach here before? But then again, it was Harry Styles he was talking about, the man was basically a ghost. Ever since he became worldwide famous five or six years ago, he barely appeared on media, using social platforms to interact with his fans. He didn't really seem to hang out with or date celebrities and had practically never been connected to the numerous scandals most young celebs were usually involved in.

Louis seriously admired him for that. While he wasn't the worst at the  "disappearing from the media’s radar for a while" thing, he was still linked (too often to his taste) to some controversies. The few famous people he talked to being well known to the gossip sites, whether he wanted it or not if he hung out with them the whole world would quickly be aware of it.

Liam was a really great manager, never asking him to do too many things for PR, and thank god Louis didn't really need those stuff, especially since he came out two years ago. People weren't expecting him to fuck the whole planet and that was pretty cool. But Liam was also a dedicated man and a hard worker. Maybe too implicated sometimes. And Louis didn't want to complain so he didn't take vacations or time to go off the radar a lot.

Maybe that was it. It took its toll on him. Maybe it had nothing to do with... Everything. Maybe he was just tired.

A dry laugh almost escaped from his puckered lips. He was becoming an expert at lying to himself.

He shook himself out of his thoughts to watch Harry Styles more attentively. _The_ Harry Styles was in front of him. His lyrics were… Just magic. It was ridiculous but Louis had always been inspired by people like Styles, he kind of reminded him of those music icons, like Jim Morrison, David Bowie or The Rolling Stones. And his books…

Anyway, Styles was one of the bests and Louis couldn’t believe he was standing here, in the same auditorium as him.

Then Harry Styles took a few steps forward, walking into the lights and closer from the first row of students. Louis almost gasped. How old was he supposed to be again? He couldn't exactly remember but the "man" in front of him didn't look more than twenty, twenty-three maximum, and he was pretty sure Styles was around a couple years to be thirty.

Through his trance, he heard Kylie whistling appreciatively before whispering "Well, aren’t we lucky ?"

Louis could only shout his approval in his head, but, sweet Lord, even there it was loud and desperate.

He had never seen such pure beauty, never thought anyone that strikingly gorgeous could even exist. It almost hurt, how exquisite he was. His porcelain skin, slightly flushed glowing cheeks, contrasting with his silky, dark, shoulder length, sumptuous curls. His clear green bluish eyes' angelic beauty rivaling with his soft plump red mouth, which sensuality would have been obscene on anyone else but was almost biblical on the man. His whole being was shouting poetry and luxury, it was almost difficult for Louis to find words to describe him, which was something completely new to him.

Louis never lacked words to portray anyone, never lacked words for anything actually, but the very idea of using words used to describe just anyone else seemed almost blasphemous to him, and those words sounded so restrictive, so few, so weak compared to the plurality of the man’s qualities.

And when he smiled, blessing them with the apparition of two dimples, Louis almost lost it. Calling Harry Styles pretty, beautiful or even handsome was awfully wrong. He was light, purity, softness and so much more. When Louis' eyes eventually left his face to swipe down the man's body, he shivered. He couldn't even explain it but the outfit he was wearing, and these never-ending legs and torso, these rings and, oh god, these hands. How will he ever be able to remember how to breathe normally?

He was interrupted in his reverie by Perrie and Kylie's exclamations, he obviously wasn't the only one struck by the new teacher’s beautiful perfection, the whole amphitheater was filled with appreciative comments and when he found the strength to take his eyes off the mesmerizing being and look around he couldn’t keep himself from smirking.

Kylie and Perrie were not even trying to be discreet, staring at the two men with wild eyes, and, without even looking at each other, blurting out things like “omg” and weirdly enough, what could only be described as the oral version of “zokojdeifufrnfrnfrji”.  

Louis realized how ridiculous his extended inside monologue must have sounded two seconds ago, and for one was relieved Liam wasn't here. His best friend could almost read his thoughts and would have immediately known how he was feeling about the lyricist, Louis would have never heard the end of it. "Louis' crushing on the new teacher, Louis wants the D, Kinky Louis" and other pleasantries would have been thrown at him for eternity.

 Pulled out of his thoughts by the noise of the students moving from their seats, he got up and turned to face Sophie and Perrie who were now by his side.

“What are we supposed to do now?”

“How unprofessional of you Mr. Tomlinson, didn’t you listen to a word the headmistress has said ?” replied Sophie, smirking quite prettily with her, he figured, signature teasing tone.

“Why would I when I have two generous and gorgeous fellow classmates to tell me all about it in details ?” He winked, moving aside to let them lead the way, like a proper gentleman (well, a lost gentleman who didn’t want to make a fool of himself by giving away the fact that he still didn’t know his way around the school).

“You sure know how to get what you want mate, consider yourself lucky I’m weak to flattery,” Perrie answered, her British accent adding cuteness to her high-pitched tone. “We need to go to the boards in the hallways of our departments, find our student identification number and the number of the classroom written next to it, it will be our first class of the year, where we will be given our schedule and various info we might need about the school year.”

“This is so like high school, at least it’s not complicated” Kylie added.

“ How does that sound not complicated to you? ” Louis retorted, incredulously.

“Oh babe, you’re lucky you didn’t go to a real college, everything is so complicated out there.” Perrie patted his shoulder, with mocked sympathy.

“I really should have taken Liam with me.” 

“Liam ?” Asked Sophie. 

“Yeah, he’s my best friend, and my manager which means that he’s really good with complicated things I don’t give a shit about.”

“Oh, right! Didn’t he use to do musicals when he was younger? My stepbrother was completely obsessed with him.” Said Perrie, visibly amused by the memory of her brother pinning after the young musical star Liam Payne. “Well, actually, I reckon he still is, he just got better at hiding it now.” She added, making the two young adults laugh.

“Yes, he did.” Louis answered in a tone nice enough to stay polite but dry enough to make them understand not to press the subject. He did not want to go there right now.

Finding his student identification number was surprisingly easier than he thought it would be. He had to struggle a bit to find his way through the mass of students, and go on the ball of his feet to be able to see above the heads of all those giants. (As he often tells Liam: the people around him were the ones ridiculously tall, Louis himself was perfectly in the norm.)

He went to bed early that night, right after a quick Skype session with Liam and a phone call from his stylist/hairdresser/makeup artist/friend/former tutor, Lou, asking him how he was doing and if he needed her to send any clothes. Typical from her, she must have seen the pictures from the parking lot with Liam or from today and probably hated their "simplicity" so far from the edgier and more sophisticated look she loved on him. She also asked him if he had met any nice people already, and seemed really glad as she congratulated him on spending time with Kylie and Perrie. Louis teased her about being so motherlike even though, in reality, that's precisely what she was to him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! :)


	5. Winsome irony

After a night of dreamless sleep, he dragged himself out of bed 10 minutes earlier than he was supposed to.

The night before, right when he was about to go to sleep, Perrie had called to offer him to meet in front of the campus’ cafeteria to grab a coffee before class. She had told him that it was only going to be the two of them because Sophie would rather “die than losing 10 minutes of beauty sleep” and that she “was probably going to be late for class anyway” because that was “her thing”. (The quotation marks were completely obvious in her tone, as well as the fondness).

So he got ready, definitively quicker than he ever has in his life, singing along to **James Bay's** cover of **HAIM’s Forever**. As weird as it was for him to acknowledge, especially for all he complained about this school thing, he was in a good mood. Of course the fact that he was about to attend his first class ever, added to the fact that he was going to be alone with Perrie for the first time since they met, and other details were kinda stressing him out, but the excitation and feeling of fresh start filled his head, leaving little place to worry.

**[...]Forever we tried to make it right,**

**But together we saw the end in sight,**

**I'm tired of fighting the good fight,**

**If you say the word then I'll say goodbye. [...]**

 Finally dressed, he pocketed his phone, MØ now blasting in his earphones, and went out, feeling a bag of knots in his stomach, but not the bad kind, more like those you get when you’re about to do something new, crazy and exciting. Somehow it was different from the stress he was used to getting before going on stage, he assumed it was because, for one of the first time in his life he was going to get to know people like Louis, and not as the artist persona he had created a long time ago. For once, he wasn’t going to be acting.

 

Perrie was simply gorgeous, her pink hair flying in the wind of this September morning.

She smiled as soon as she noticed him walking towards her, copying his reflex of taking his earphones out. Her petite frame was enhanced by her heels and a tight knee-length dress.

“You look really good, I love your style.” He blurted out after their salutations and a bit of small talk.

Louis always tried to refrain from those kinds of compliments in his “celebrity” circle of “friends”, much too vain already, or in public to avoid unnecessary gossip. But Perrie had this thing, he couldn’t quite describe it but it made him feel completely at ease to be himself around her. She was playful but you could see that she knew how to make mature decisions, she also seemed to be a good listener and, let’s be honest, he was totally smitten by her sense of fashion and British accent.

Maybe it was a new kink of his? Who knew, ever since he had put a foot in this school it seemed like he turned into some wolf in heat; like this weird sexual trance yesterday at the assembly. Even though it clearly was Harry Styles’ fault for showing up without announcing it, not even giving people the appropriate time to prepare themselves mentally.

When Perrie offered him a bite off her chocolate cupcake, it took all his will to refuse, mainly because he knew that offering food was not something she did for anyone.

“Oh, come on, it’s not like you have a shooting today, is it ?”

“It’s not really about that, I just haven’t been working out lately, plus I kind of haven’t eaten any real vegetable since I arrived, which is, like, lethal for my skin, I get pimples really fast.”

“Lethal!” Snickered Perrie, “Gosh, you’re-such-a-drama-queen.” She sassed, emphasizing every word.

“Am not!” Louis retorted looking offended, then added at the sight of Perrie’s “you don’t have the slightest bit of credibility” facial expression. “Ok, I am but you don’t know how many people would be thrilled to have a shot of my pimples.”

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that… Must be tiring.” She genuinely sympathized.

“Comes with the package, you get used to it. But I guess you don’t have that problem, right, Miss perfect skin.” He teased, a sly grin on his lips.

“Haters gonna hate!” She sang, gulping down the last piece of her cupcake.

 

They made their way up the stairs together, arms locked, Perrie telling him about Sophie’s pride in her collection of face masks, then parted, exchanging a few last words and a promise to meet for lunch, before going to their respective classrooms, indicated the previous day on the boards.

He was a bit early, only a couple of guys were waiting in front of the door when he got in the hallway.

They looked at him, at first giving him the average look you give to someone budging in when you are having a conversation. But then they looked back at each other, before looking back to Louis again, a sense of urgency in their eyes. Their discussion became hastier and quieter.

He was used to these sorts of things, but it was still really embarrassing, especially when he was alone, as of now. So he did the only thing that could save him from this extreme awkwardness: he took his phone out, after directing a polite smile at the two (now silently-staring) students.

As he checked his twitter he figured he should tweet something to keep his fans tuned about what he was up to before the magazines could play _fill in the blanks_. He congratulated himself on that idea, Liam, in particular, would be really pleased to see that he took the initiative for once.

**“** **@Louis_Tomlinson** **: 1st day of class ever! Hope I won’t turn out to be as bad a student as** **@Liam_Payno** ”

It was a joke the fans couldn’t get tired of, Liam was terrible on a phone or a computer. The kid was just not born in the right century, his tweets and texts were full of typos and Louis was particularly happy to share some screens of the funniest of them with the world.

After a few second of reflexion, he tweeted “ **Wish me good luck ;)! Hope you’re all having a great day** ”.

Then he went on Instagram, liked Liam’s last picture of himself working out, Lou’s picture of Lux, her charming daughter, looked at some of his favorites tattoo artist’s pics, and then stalked a few of his showbiz “friends”.

He also went on Sophie’s Instagram and realized that she had quite the number of followers, he followed her before liking a few of her pictures too.

He was about to type Perrie’s @ when he heard the sound of a door opening, raising his eyes from his phone he realized that there were much more people standing in the hallway than when he came.

 

Most of them were looking toward the door, he followed their gazes and snorted. Of fucking course. His life was a big fat joke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is called Wet Chalk, and in case you were wondering, yes I'm using all the clichés, sozzzz!


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